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Article Type

Original Study

Abstract

Consultation-liaison (C-L) psychia­try is a relatively young subspecialty that is associated with all the diagnos­tics, therapeutic, research and teach­ing services that psychiatrists perform in the general hospital. The present study was planed to determine the nature of referrals to a psychiatric consultation service, the type of in­tervention provided and to under­stand the difficulties of Consultation-Liaison {C-L} Psychiatry in Mansoura University Hospital (MUH). The study was conducted on 203 consecutive referrals seen over one year and the basic demographic data, DSM-IV-TR diagnosis and recommended interventions were noted. The rate of referrals to C-L psychiatry service was 0.49% of all hospital admission. Males constitute 56.16% of the studied sample, those belonged to productive age group of 25 years to 44 years were 42.86%. 86.7% of the patients were referred from medical departments. The most frequent reasons for referrals were for as­sessment of cognitive impairment (18.22%) and unexplained physical symptoms (17.73%). The commonest psychiatric diagnosis was depressive disorders (19.21%), followed by de­lirium (18.23%), adjustment/anxiety disorders (15.27%) and psychotic disorders (14.29%). More interaction between psychiatric team and refer­ring physician is recommended and there is urgent need for teaching medical doctors, nursing and para­medical staff the implications of con­sultation liaison service.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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